927 People Own Half Of All Bitcoins

This has long been a source of
consternation in the Bitcoin community, and people like the FT's
Izabella Kaminska have
writtenextensively
about the implications of this apparent cartel on prices —
basically, they get to dictate them, and the rest of us are just
price takers.

Now Finnish entrepreneur Risto Pietilä, an active member of on Bitcointalk.org,
has
offered an estimate of just how severe this ownership
imbalance could be.

He based his calculations on data from
Bitcoinrichlist.com, which has trawled through Bitcoin's
master ledger — the Blockchain — to offer a rough guide to
distribution as well as activity on Bitcoin exchanges.

So, as of Dec. 3., using a price of $1,000 (which is basically
where we are now), and assuming 12 million Bitcoins in
circulation, here's the breakdown: 47 individuals own 28.9% of
the approximately 12 million Bitcoins in existence so far.
Another 880 own 21.5%, meaning 927 people control half of the
entire market cap of the digital currency. Another 10,000
individuals control about a quarter. And the rest of us (around a
million of us) get the crumbs (500,000 are out of circulation,
whether through government seizure or people losing their
passwords).

Rob Wile/Business Insider, data from Risto
Pietilä

And here's what that means in terms of ownership: those same 47
people each own at least $10 million-worth of Bitcoins. The mean
net worth may be much higher. Another 880 individuals each own at
least $1 million-worth of Bitcoin. About a million people own
$10,000 or less worth.

Rob Wile/Business
Insider, data via Risto Pietilä

Bitcoin is anonymous, so we don't know who all the 47 individuals
are — though some, like the Winklevoss twins and Roger Ver, have
publicly identified themselves.

Bottom line: Bitcoin has made a fraction of people very rich. And
then there's the rest of us.